Worth
by Enter Pseudonym
Summary: Her name is in The Book of Prophecies, Her powers are growing un checked, Her heart is bound in turmoil, torn between two worlds and a love that seems permanently unrequited. Can Thalia prove her worth, and save everyone? [The Santa Claus Movies]
1. Strength, Sweetness and Good Cheer

I do not own the movies The Santa Clause 1 and/or 2

Prologue

Santa sat in a large cushy chintz chair nervously biting his nails, the other members of the council sat next to him around a huge table, Mother Nature being the only exception as it was that she was acting as mid-wife, a cry later and Abby came out.

"It's a girl!" Santa heaved a sigh of relief and went out to the balcony to tell the masses.

"A GIRL!" cheers erupted from below in the workshop, Bernard and Curtis stood just off to the left smiling, today was a big day for the big man.

"What a day huh?" the Big Red Jolly said in a slight shock turning to his head elf he gave a light chuckle.

"Well I always wanted a daughter." Bernard smiled and nodded once.

"Daughters" Mother Nature corrected

"Beg pardon," Santa asked not sure he heard correct. Bernard's smile swiped off, he wasn't happy about the prospect of another human up here but he could deal with one especially if it was Santa's kid but two was asking for to much.

"Well two, two girls aren't bad! At least they can keep each other entertained and not bothering the workers!" Bernard smiled again when this bit of logic computed, productivity would not be lost.

"Three, you have triplets," the smile fell once again.

"Tri-tri-triplet eh… hehehe" he hit the ground with a thump; Mother Nature gave the child she was holding to Bernard so she could help Santa.

Bernard looked down at the tiny girl in his arms she looked up and coughed wide deep blue eyes stared at him and a tiny frail fist reached for a lock of his dark hair and gently held it for a second before letting go and trying to turn to see the world around her. Bernard instantly feeling a small bond with the child helped her to see the workshop then turned her back to face him, something deep inside him clicked causing him to frown a small spark in the babe's eye caught him and he stared recognizing Christmas magic, in its dormant form. Unconsciously he brought the infant closer to him to ward off the chill from outside. To the far right of the scene watching everything Cupid and Father Time stood. Cupid grinned at the sight of Bernard and the baby girl.

"She will grow up to be beautiful, and will save Christmas." Father Time's voice creaked.

"And he will love her even more for that, even just now he felt the bonds between the two of them form." Cupid murmured back, _but he will be stubborn about it oh yes, the most delicious tension will result from that Elf-boy._

Cupid chuckled and turned to Father Time.

"So Pop's wanna go join the rest of em?" he said tauntingly. Father Time sighed and stiffly walked over ignoring the hyperactive winged man.

"What are you going to name them?" Mother Nature asked after both the Clause's were up and awake. They had all gathered around Mrs. Clause's bed side and Mrs. Clause took the one from Bernard and looked at the child.

"Thalia, like the tidings she brings." 1 She gave her back to Bernard. Bernard looked down at Thalia and murmured.

"Thalia eh? Pretty name, just hope you grow into it."

Mrs. Clause looked at the next girl.

"I think by the strength in your gaze I'll name you Maud." 2 She smiled and handed her back to Mother Nature, and reached for the one Santa was holding. Her obvious sweet disposition radiated from her, Mrs. Clause smiled sweetly.

"Malaika, for your sweetness." 3 Father Time clapped his ancient hands together.

"It's done they are now entered into the book of ages."

"Hey then! LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!" A person in the crowd crowed, more cheers erupted.

Father Time left the party early back to his Hall of Time. _At least those girls will have a chance to grow up a bit before the darkness befalls them, I just wish it wasn't all up to one, triplets should never be split up._ He thought as he looked into his giant book and continued to read the passage of time. Starting from where it said: _Bernard stared down at the tiny infant girl now called Thalia still feeling a small bond grow between them as the infant once again reached for a lock of his hair. _

Next Chapter: the beginning of separation

1 Thalia means Good Cheer and/or Comedy in Greek

2 Maud means Strength in Celtic

3 Malaika means Angel in Swahili


	2. Out into the world, they lost oneanother

Chapter 1

I don't own the Santa Claus movies but I do own Thalia, Maud, and Malaika,

Thalia skipped down the hallways, to see the one she was one hundred and ten percent positive she was gonna marry.

"Bernard!" she tried to call as lovely as she possibly could she wanted everything to be perfect, _After all, _Her twelve year old mind reasoned _today could be the day he proposes._ A charming scene popped into head.

Thalia entered Bernard's office/personal workshop carrying a batch of her homemade cookies and a tall mug of hot cocoa, again her own production.

"Bernard my love, I've brought you some cookies and cocoa, that I made myself!" She flounced in with as much grandeur a twelve year old could muster and then some. He tunred to face her, his face shining with love.

"Oh dear! I'm sorry the place is in such a mess!" He wiped his hands on his apron. She smiled and swept over to him to brush bits of stuff out of his hair. Such a sweeter scene there never was.

"Hush, it doesn't matter." She placed a finger on his lips, he took the basket from her, he leaned down and…

"Are you going to stand there looking at my door or are you going to come inside?" Bernard looked at her from inside his private workplace, the place he resided in during off season hours. Thalia blushed and entered holding the plate, realty sunk in a bit, and this reality was she was a twelve year old _human_ girl, he was at least a thousand years her senior, and an elf, with a strict anti-interbreeding policy. Add to the fact that these were not her special made cookies. She'd been bugging Judy to teach her to make cookies and bugging Abbey to teach her the elfin art of cocoa, but her skills were still sadly lacking, severely.

"Uhm Judy told me to take this and give it to you in here." She muttered blushing like mad.

"Thanks Kid," he ruffled her hair, and her heart sank a little bit but she kept strong.

"So what are you doing in here all by yourself?" she asked hoping he heard the subtle hint within her words.

"Tinkering, like any other good elf." He laughed. She smiled weakly and gave a sad little chuckle.

"Oh come on smile! You're the gloomiest kid I've ever met!" She tried to smile a bit bigger but it's hard when the person you love doesn't see you as anything other than a child.

"Oh hey almost slipped my mind," so looked up in hope as she watched him fish something out of his pocket… Keys… to his… workshop… hope never was very long-standing.

"Come on Kid your Dad wants to see you." She followed frowning and sighing. It was her twelfth birthday today, and everyone, save for her siblings, seems to have forgotten.

_I mean, if it was closer to the working season then I'd understand or if births were more common around her. Even Bernard seems to have forgotten what today is; well maybe not… maybe he's just waiting for me to say something! Okay, okay I'll do it!_

"Hey Bernard what's today?"

"Uhm the… 19th why?"

"The _nineteenth_." He didn't get it.

"Yeah…"

"Never mind." She was rueful that he didn't remember. Didn't seem like he cared, but this was… expected, after he's at least a thousand so why would he take interest in a twelve year old girl? Especially his boss's daughter, she was only really setting herself up for heartbreak, especially from someone like Bernard. They proceeded through the workshop where a gaggle of elves worked to get ahead of the Christmas rush.

"Hey Kid, do you think you could head over to your father's office yourself? I have some stuff in my workshop to finish." Hope leapt up again. _Is he…?_

"Okay," She nodded and walked the rest of the way. Her father sat in his big chair in front of the hearth, her mom and sisters were already awaiting her, alongside her family there was the rest of the council, so what ever was to be spoken this was a formal situation; which meant be on her best behavior and no nicknames.

"You called for me father." She intoned politely.

"Uhm well sweetie the council and I have been discussing you and your sisters and we uhm have come to the conclusion…" He scratched his neck awkwardly.

"What your father is trying to say is we feel that you're not broadening your horizons sufficiently because of your location. Hehehe." She gave a nervous chuckle as she struggled for a way to explain to her twelve year old daughter in a gentle way.

"So basically you're saying we're not getting all the experiences we need at the North Pole, so we should eventually leave to go get said experiences?" She asked thinking that it would be when she was eighteen, so she'd have some time to prepare.

"Uhm Sis, you remember the 239 subparagraph B clause 33296 of the Elfin Work Statutes?" Maud's dry dark voice inquired

"Yes, as laid down in the year 806 by the Santa Claus Nikolaus Shilzoski to quell the insurrection of unqualified elves entering the work force, the Elvin work requirements law was passed, stating the all persons of citizenship to the North Pole must upon reaching the age of adulthood, be qualified to enter a specific field of the work force or face permanent deportation from the North Pole. But what does that have to do with us?"

"She remembers all that? Impressive." The Tooth Fairy complemented.

"Our daughters are brilliant." Mrs. Claus quipped.

Maud spoke again. "Thalia, we turn into adult in six years, and none of us have any skills."

"But the law was meant for Elves who mature at the age of three-hundred!" She cried.

"But we don't mature that slowly, the law states any citizen of the North Pole, we were born here that makes us citizens by birth and we have six years to find an occupation or we'll never be able to return." Thalia sighed in defeat.

"When do we leave?"

"Today in an hour…"

"What!" she breathed she was leaving in an hour. Tears prickled at her eyes but she held them back.

"Okay just let me say my goodbyes and pack my things." They nodded.

"Be quick about it." Mother Nature cautioned, as Mrs. Claus sobbed. Thalia nodded and walked out with her sisters.

"I think it's stupid," Malaika muttered. "After all we could learn traits from the elves here." Maud simply made a noncommittal 'hmm' Thalia remained silent.

Malaika pressed on with no qualms "And Bernard! And Curtis! Neither of them stopped to think about us before going ahead and saying 'Sure great idea!'" She finished with a pout. Thalia's lips parted in shock.

"Bernard suggested this?" she whispered.

"Yeah him and Curtis were the ones to bring up the law." Maud said in her dry tone

Thalia couldn't believe it. Bernard had been the one… _that's why he didn't want to go with me to dad's office; he didn't want to be there when we found out._ Thalia was by no means a stupid girl, at some level she knew Bernard wouldn't feel the same way towards her, at least not when she was still a child, and frankly she really didn't want him while she was still twelve, that had moral deficiency written all over it; regardless, it hurt that he would throw their friendship away like that. It was cruel how casual he was.

"Bastard." She murmured after she gave it some thought.

"Don't cuss, but yes indeed." Malaika said. Maud, who aside from her mom, and the rest of the workshop, knew her of sister's crush on the Head-elf was a little shocked at the abrupt change of sentiments for said elf. Malaika rushed into her room to begin trying to figure out away to pack every last item in there, but with out magic it was almost impossible with the sheer number of plush animals she owned. Maud followed Thalia into her room.

"Ain't ya gonna go pack?" Thalia said as she pulled open drawers and emptied them of their clothes placing the neatly folded articles on her bed by a certain category based on the clothes type. Maud shook her head at the sight but held her tongue.

"Already did, used magic to find out ahead of time and packed." Thalia whirled around and clamped her hand over her sister's mouth. Yes her and Maud had the ability to use Christmas Magic, Malaika, however, did not, neither could there mom. However Maud's was fading, fast, once she was able to do great things with her abilities, but earlier on they started to dissipate now she was just able to use it to listen in on other peoples conversations every once in a great while. She and Thalia suspected she would eventually lose all abilities together. Maud found she really didn't care really.

"Shh! If Malaika herd you…" It was no secret Malaika loved the North Pole, but she would eventually end up as every other mortal, ageing and eventually, sadly dieing. Mom didn't have to worry about that though, through magical bondage through marriage she would live as long as Dad, but if he ever died, so would she. But poor Malaika was doomed to the mortals span. Needless to say the sweet little Malaika would have gone Ape-Shit-Postal for magic so she could live in the North Pole forever making toys for kids. But she was mortal as Maud had become, she no longer possessed enough magic to sustain herself eternally. Thalia sighed at her lot, obviously fated to be the last sister.

"She didn't hear me, she's too busy dealing with those stupid stuffed things of hers. But that's not my immediate concern right now."

"Oh what is?" Thalia snapped back as she tried to stuff her clothes into one of the suit cases she owned from when her parents had sent her to the Caribbean to visit her Grandparents.

"Bernard's a bastard now? And magic's much faster you know." Thalia growled at that.

"Yes, he is, and Malaika is right across the hallway…"

"Oh hang it will ya? What the hell's up? One Minute your all 'Someday when I'm older we'll get married' then you go, 'He's a bastard'" Maud snapped, her sis was being a 'tard and Maud was not know for her patients. Thalia stopped what she was doing and sat down on the suitcase snapping it shut.

"You know that I never intended to marry him until I was older, it's just that, well I thought about it and he's never really been particularly nice to me, just in comparison to how he treats you guys it is, he doesn't even remember my name, it's always 'Kid'; it's frustrating and really not worth my time to stress over." She sniffed. Maud smiled, she was proud, her sister was getting out of his shadow.

"Well, you know what you have to do? Get great at something and shove it back in his face." Thalia chuckled at that thought and continued packing while Maud made her way to the door to see if Malaika needed any help. As she reached the door she turned around and looked back on her sister silently working at packing her things and thought.

_One day Thal, you'll be back here all grown up and sexy, and I just hope I'll be there when he slips on his drool. But you will be back and I have no doubt you'll get your elf, it just may take a few years and a body to cause a train wreck, and an impressive diploma from some highly respected institution about some almost impossible field that could be applied up here. But that's totally you anyways._ She smirked at her thoughts and left to check up On Malaika because, while she loved her sister terribly, she was a ditz.

"Oi! Mal! Need any help?"  
"Yes, very much so." Came the muffled reply. Maud sighed and went to dig Malaika out of her plushy avalanche, leaving Thalia to her own.

The three girls plus three mountains of luggage sat in the middle of the town at the appointed place, but so far the Council was an hour late. Finally Maud out of sheer boredom dug out her CD player and latched her huge headphones on and tuned out the world. Malaika started to build snow sculptures, and Thalia was sitting on top of five trunks banging her heals in the side playing her PSP finally after abut another half hour Mother nature and the rest of the Council showed up. The Maud and Thalia stashed their things away and Malaika got up from trying to make snow ants and walked over to her luggage.

"Now, girls are you aware that the North Pole will not be able to keep tabs on you while in the 'real world'?" The girls shook their heads no. Mother Nature sighed

"When you were born you weren't added to the roster of children because figured that if you got in trouble your parents would know, and being that your parents are Santa and Mrs. Claus they could withhold your presents that way instead of making them then never delivering them." The girls nodded in understanding.

"Well since your heading out to where they can't keep an eye one you and it's too late to add you to the list, your just going to have to behave on your own. Is that understood?" The girls nodded again.

"Good! Now stand in a circle please" They followed the instructions, but made sure to stand next to their luggage as well.

"Good, now closer your eyes and see you in six years girls! Have fun! And remember learn a skill!" The girls vanished.

Thalia opened her eyes to see she was inside an apartment, a rather nice one at that.

"Mal! Maud!" She called but no answer.

"HELLO! ANYONE HERE?" looking around she saw a letter on the table.

_Dear Thalia,_

_Due to a foreseen incident you and your sister have been split up. Don't worry they'll be fine! I have taken all the necessary arrangement as it was I who foreseen it! You'll find this apartment completely paid for. (Your welcome.) You'll be attending the Local High School on the twenty-first of August, your books will already be paid for, take whatever course you'd like. There is an allowance of two thousand and five hundred dollars for food and clothing, spend it wisely, you only get it once a month, come August if your grades are good you'll get more, if not then it will stay the same, it is advisable to get a permit once your allowed, then a license and a car, till then you'll walk to school but it's only six blocks. At then precise end of six years you'll be brought back (You have Five years three hundred and sixty-four days, twenty-three hours, forty- two minutes and sixteen seconds left, or you could just look at the hourglass behind you) regardless where you are. And remember have fun._

_Love,_

'_Uncle T'_

_P.S. You can call home but it takes an extreme amount of magic so use it only for emergencies or the day of Christmas Eve ._

_Uncle T._


	3. heading home

I do not own the Santa Claus 1 or 2.

Chapter 2

Bernard continued to tinker in his workshop, he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

'Nock-nock' came from the door.

"Hey come in Kid!" He stopped what he was doing and groaned.

"It's okay, I miss them too, everyone does." Judy said as she came in holding a tray of food for the reclusive Head-Elf.

"I don't miss _them_."

"Oh, right, of course not, you miss _her_." He swatted at her with his wrench.

"Ha-ha!" she danced out of his reach, "Bernard wants to kiss her! Bernard wants to marry her, BERNARD WANTS TO SCREW HER!" she cackled in a very unelf-like way as Bernard turned several shades of red.

"_You. Are. Sick. And incase you've forgotten she's twelve years old, AND I'M NOT A PEDOPHILE!_" he gritted out through his clenched teeth.

"Yes, she was twelve, six years ago, she should be grown up by now, and anyways they're coming back in," she checked her watch "two hours anyways." The topic was dropped and Bernard returned to his work Judy sat on a counter to the left of him. The silence gave her the opportunity to study his workshop. The whole room was bright, the walls where a pale yellow crème color, the wood work was a deep burgundy as were his benches and tables that were littered with bits of broken things, toys and machinery mostly. Judy's attention drifted back to Bernard.

"Whatchya doing?"

"Trying to get this damn thing to work." He grumbled.

"Why? What does it do?"

"It's a machine that's supposed regulate production, in theory it's supposed to allow Elves the chance to work more to a preferred speed without costing productivity."

"Ah, so what's the problem?"

"Well, size for one, it has to be small enough to fit over head with out causing hazards or such. Spacing is another issue I've recently come across, not only does it have to be spacious enough for toys of all sizes and shapes to go through, you have to have easy access to every part incase it malfunctions. But it also has to be efficient, and the software (not to mention the hardware) is being a pain in the ass." Judy laughed.

"Poor Bernard nothing works out for you does it? First you get your beloved banished for six years," he made a grunt of denial, "and then you start to make a machine that would revolutionize the North Pole but can't get it to work, and to top it off your getting gray hairs!" Bernard dropped his wrench on his foot in surprise.

"OW! WHAT! GRAY HAIR!" he demanded hopping on one foot holding the other as tears formed in his eyes from the pain. As he moved about she realized it wasn't gray at all.

"Oops, it isn't gray after all! Sorry!" He glared and she laughed and retreated to the safety of the kitchens knowing he wouldn't leave his workshop unless Santa himself called for him. He got at least some time to himself with out evil females making life hard for him. He went to the other side if his workshop favoring his right foot as he walked he passed a large polished metal sheet, he stopped then looked around real quick, the proceeded to check his hair for graying strands.

"Hey Bernard! What are you doing?" Santa asked loudly from the door as Curtis was behind him 'instructing' elves on proper party decorating. And they we're arguing back. Loudly.

"Uh, nothing, nothing, I just… thought I saw something, that's all." He chuckled weakly

"Uh-huh," Santa nodded like he agreed. "Bernard I need you to stop what you're doing and help out with the decorations… and between you and me," he continued lowering his voice dramatically "Save these guys from Curtis." Bernard chuckled lightly.

"Will do Santa, where's the party going to be?"

"Same place, the main hall." Santa walked to the door with Bernard.

"Uhm, hey what happened to your foot?"

"Oh, I uh, I dropped my wrench on my foot."

"Ah, ow." He said as the two of them walked off to the room.

Thalia sat behind the huge black curtain off to the side with a tiny flashlight and a screw driver trying to fix one of the fog machines. In the foreground the play _A Christmas Carol: A musical_ went on a group of blonde dancers danced background to the singers the audience oohed and awed the performance as the spirit of Christmas Past flew up over head secretly suspended by a pair of tension cables and a clear harness under her flowing white robes.

"_Hey Thal how's that fog machine coming along?_" Jerrod, the stage manager whispered to her through the headset she had latched onto her head.

"_I just got the casing open, and guess what I found?_" she whispered back.

"_A Million dollars?_" He truly hoped.

"_A huge wad of hair._"

"_Damn, damn and double damn._"

"_Wouldn't it be triple damn?_"

"_Shut-up smart ass and fix the damn thing._" She laughed quietly and continued to pull the hair out as gently as possible.

Maud sat on the pillow in deep meditation, Monk Fa-Saou sat next to her.

"It is unfortunate, that you leave before our festival." The Monk said breaking the silence and her concentration.

"Yes it is, but I do miss my family." She said still keeping her eyes closed.

"What do you plan on doing when you go home?"

"I don't know, work I guess."

"There's no way you could…" Maud opened her eyes and gave him a pained look.

"No." she whispered, the sunlight filtered through the wooden windows of the monastery. Fa-Saou gave a weak chuckle, the handsome Tibetan man gazed out the window at a bird hopping from branch to branch. He smiled wistfully.

"If," he began softly "if, we had been under different circumstances…"

"Shh, don't regret, under different circumstances, we might have never met." She interrupted.

"Tell me where you live, so I can send you letters." He added quickly.

"Hm," she gave a throaty laugh. "North, far north, maybe if you travel north, even from here, you'd get there if you tried hard enough." The two sat there in quiet observation gently studying each others face in the filtering light.

"I'll miss you." The statement was left hanging in the air.

Malaika wiped the sweat off her brow as she continued to work. She was a member in an organization who would go around the world, helping to restore damaged parts of the planet, whether by man or nature. But secretly she wanted to go home. It was something she was not at liberty to speak out loud, but she missed the North Pole. Off to her left Katie, a real and true ditzy blonde slut, was sitting there flirting with Kevin, her boss and secret love interest. He was twenty-two tall with wild orange dyed hair and a few piercings through his ear. He was gorgeous, one of those androgynous pretty boys you see on Japanese TV. His real name was Yanamara (1) but when he moved to America most Americans had a bit of difficulty pronouncing it so he changed it. Malaika never found any difficulty saying his name, but then again hers was a tongue twister itself.

"Hey Katie, why don't you actually do something instead of standing there flirting?" Corey snapped, Malaika adored Corey, in fact a lot of girls did, but he swung the other way.

"You're welcome Honey," he said to Malaika in his contralto voice, "Mm-mm-mm isn't he a lovely piece of meat?" Corey said a second later while the two of them were admiring Kevin's posterior.

She laughed. "Come on we've got work to do."

Bernard watched lazily as Elves scurried around hanging decorations. The Kitchen Elves had made this huge delicious feast enough to stuff the entire population of The North Pole. And for once every little detail down to the tiniest thing was being pulled off perfectly. Bernard yawned loudly and stretched in his chair. He had no issue with just leaving the elves to do whatever it is they had to do, but the threat of Curtis stepping in and making everyone do things his way was too large for Bernard to step off even for a second. It was now an hour left and counting.

59 Minutes left…

The play had thirty minutes left. Thalia yawned and tried to remember what she was supposed to be doing right that instant. Something kept nagging at the back of her mind, something about time.

48 Minutes left…

Monk Fa-Saou had left her to meditate in peace, but without his quiet air about him, Maud found it impossible to concentrate.

44 Minutes left…

Malaika smiled as she gently washed oil off a seagull that happened to be fishing when an oil tanker breached itself on a rock reef a mile off the shore. Behind her Kevin spoke to her quietly with his heavily accented voice as he too washed oil covered birds.

42 Minutes left…

Mrs. Clause nervously paced as the hour counted down slowly. She had missed her girls dreadfully and couldn't help but wish that the hour would hurry up already.

35 Minutes left…

Curtis had tried to take over things but was successfully redirected by Santa to go and make sure the Reindeer were fed. Many Elves breathed a sigh of relief when he was sent off.

28 Minutes left…

Father Time sat there slowly gathering his thoughts and three screens portrayed three girls. Quickly a telephone appeared next to him and he dialed a cell phone number.

27 Minutes left…

Thalia felt her cell phone go off on vibrate. Quickly walking off the stage to a quieter location she answered the device.

"Hello?"

"You have half an hour left Thal; I'd hurry up if I were you. Oh, by the way, Happy Birthday."

Thalia's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered what she was supposed to be doing today.

Running up to Jarrod, she yelled over the after show party.

"Jarrod, I have to go!"

"Sure! What time can you come over to finish up the fog machines?"

"I can't, this is my last day!"

"WHAT! What do you mean this is your last day?"

"I forgot I'm heading back home!"

"YOU FORGOT!"

"Yeah, sorry, you mad?"

"Hell yeah! I'm loosing my best mechanic!"

"Sorry" she ran out the door

15 Minutes left…

Malaika slammed the front door and pounded up the steps to her room tears pouring out her eyes. He had asked her out; on the last night she was there, he had asked her. She threw her door open and grabbed the suitcase that was sitting on her bed and held it to her chest and just sat there.

10…

Maud stood there next to her large duffel bag she had bought for her things. It held her robes and the jeans she wore every so often. Her sandals had been replaced with a pair of cruddy sneakers that would be better insulated from the harsh dry cold of her home land. She brushed a strand of her frizzy almost shaggy brown hair out of her face. A faded Seventies rock band logo was splashed across her chest advertising a tour that was finished long before her birth. A guitar sat on her back being held up by worn straps, A Blue Rosewood Stratocaster. Expensive, and as it was Maud was not prone to a steady income due to working at a monastery. Gently she ran her fingers over the patched up frayed soft-case.

9…

Thalia ran around her apartment trying to pack everything as fast as possible. Pictures flew into boxes while being wrapped in packaging wrap. The song Carol of The Bells chimed in her ears as the tell tale sign of her magic being used. Finally after another second everything was packed and sitting in the living room after a short while she got up and changed out of her work clothes and into her street clothes. Her dark black hair was pulled back into a mid-tail, leaving her bleached white bangs to frame her face, the silver barbells that ran through her right eyebrow, taking in her sight in a mirror she blinked her midnight blue eyes, a black tank-top stopped an inch above her navel to show off her belly button piercing then a pair of black and grey camo pants and tucked into a pair of combat boots. Rubbing her fingers over the tips of her ears, she winced and she gingerly rubbed the sensitive skin, she gazed with growing depression as her ears, red and sore, grew slowly, day by day, more and more, into pointed ears, the skin on top of the points was stretched taunt and was prone to splitting open and bleeding to the point that she couldn't wear earrings anymore because of it. Wincing she rummaged through a drawer for the special Band-Aids that were meant for ears.

8…

Malaika splashed water on her face; the cold water reduced the puffiness of her eyes. Blinking away the redness that tainted the whites of her eyes she gulped a breath of air and dried her face. Tucking her long blonde hair behind her ears, she brushed her pink baby-tee smooth of wrinkles, Glancing at the hour glass she kept with her she noticed the digital readout on the bottom said just under eight minutes left. Mal dried her face and thought about her sisters. What had they done in there lives? Would all three of them be able to stay? What of Thalia and Bernard? How would that end up? What about Maud? Did she meet anyone? These where some of the questions that flew around Malaika's head, she sighed and tossed the towel into the dirty clothes bin.

2 Minutes left…

Father Time and the rest of the holiday council left their abodes to travel to The North Pole. Half way there they all met.

"Mother Nature, are you alright?" The Tooth fairy asked concerned for his friend. Mother Nature's face was a little pale and small beads of sweat were forming on her brow.

"He's back," she panted. "He broke free from the spell. We need to warn Santa."

Ugh, okay, end of chapter. Sorry it took so long, but I had started to write this immediately after I posted this up. It's just that was in the middle of my junior year of high school and I need to pass on time, and I happen to be a credit or so shy. So I needed to keep up with my homework and then a whole soap-opera's worth or drama found its way into my previously unstressed life. And honestly I felt horrible about not updating sooner, knowing that people seemed to like this story and that I should have updated like four months ago. And then recently (and I feel horribly guilty about this) I found some free time. And the story just sat there, about two lines shorter (so it's wasn't as if I suddenly wrote a ton and then posted) than it currently is, so tonight, I decided that I had pissed enough time away, and clipped the chapter short. This is no where near what I had originally planned for the chap but, regardless of all that, with any luck, since summer break's the week after next, updates will go more smoothly and consistently.


	4. Silly Little Arguements

Uhm okay here's chapter 4…

I don't own the Santa Clause movies… any of them.

Santa Clause, formally know as Scott Calvin, had received many shocks in his life, his first wife divorcing him, his second wife delivering triplet girls, him becoming Santa, the list went on. However finding out that a deranged lunatic was trying to destroy the 'Good Cheer of Christmas' was a little much. In the background his daughters were standing there hovering around the Book of Ages.

"Alright Encyclopedia, what's the story of Christmas?" Malaika said after she attempted to translate a section of the book from the Greek it was written in into English, but she kept stumbling over odd words. Thalia laughed sarcastically.

"Oh Ha ha very effin funny." She grumbled but cleared her throat anyways.

"Christmas is not an actual holiday. Well not in the sense of it being for a specific event or person, like Thanksgiving. Easter, Christmas, and Halloween are all Judeo-Christian inventions."

"Jesus was a real man Thal." Malaika pointed out.

"Oh! I know, but _Christ_-Mass was the day dedicated to him before the Christian church, in a bid to get more converters, decided to use the pagan holiday Yule as Christmas, kind of a…" she drew off trying to think of the right word. "Well, the Christian church wasn't stupid; they knew that if they offered something familiar to people, people would be more inclined to join them. An incentive if you will. The gift giving deal didn't start until a man; St. Nicklaus started the tradition of giving toys to children on Christmas morning. The name Santa Claus is a slur on his name Santa- Saint, Claus- Nic_klaus._"

"Hm, I didn't know that." The Tooth fairy commented.

"Whoa, wait how long ago are we talking here?" Maud said trying to get all the facts completely straight.

"Uhm roughly… second century?" Thalia said after thinking it over for a minute.

"Oi,"

"Well that makes much more sense now; it kept saying the 'Good Cheer of Yule." Thalia rolled her eyes and stumbled over to a vacant chair, to tired to continue standing.

"In what context?"

"In the darkest hour, the Good Cheer of Yule will arise to vanquish darkness and restore faith to the spirit." Malaika quoted.

"That's kind of awkwardly put." Maud said.

"Well, roughly put, it's the closest translation from Greek."

"Greek?"

"The Greeks were one of the first cultures to celebrate something similar to the holiday." Thalia muttered. Judy came in with mugs of hot chocolate and sugar-cookies. Thalia took a sip from hers and cooed in bliss.

"Mmm, peppermint-chocolate, my favorite." Judy hid a look of surprise that didn't escape Thalia's eyes. She arched an eyebrow in response but left it alone. Bernard also took his and moaned a sigh of gratitude.

"Hey, Bernard." Her tone wasn't exactly friendly. He winced, but responded.

"Yeah?"

"Anyone in the shop that has any potential for being 'the cheer of Christmas'?" she asked tired from the day. Thalia sank into the plush chair and leaned her head back, eyes closed.

"No," he said after a moment.

"Damn… well I'm absolutely no use tonight, I'm beat, anyone mind if I head to bed?" She said after putting her remaining energy to lift her head.

"No, baby you look tired, go on ahead. Sleep tight sweetie." Thalia smiled her thanks and made effort to get up.

"Oh, one more thing sweet-heart." Her father's voice interrupted her thoughts. "I was thinking, how does secretary work sound?" Thalia yawned but responded that it sounded easy.

"Would you mind being a secretary?" Thalia mulled it over as best she could but found no immediate objections.

"Eh, not really, it's only during the season right?" he confirmed.

"K, sure then." He smiled. And waved her off to bed. With a proper dismiss, Thalia once again put her energy to hauling her body out of the very comfy chair. Bernard saw this and got up almost immediately.

"I'll walk her to her rooms." He went over to her and offered her a hand. Not bothering to be short with him so late at night, or was it early in the morning now? Thalia grabbed his hand and was tugged to her feet. Just out side the door and a little bit down the hallway Bernard spoke again.

"Hey, um about that thing… six years ago… I… I didn't mean for you… well I didn't mean to get you… I don't want you to think I hated ya or anything, I… it's just that…" Thalia was looking at him with a cool stare. Bernard gulped, he was in it deep. The truth was, he was very aware of her crush on him all those years ago, and he really wanted to discourage it. He really did like her, not in the way she wanted, but in a sort of fond non-romantic way. See banishment was really the last thing he wanted, but with the rest of the workshop teasing him, and with her staring at him with those doll-eyes, it ended up being the option taken. And then he realized, he missed her, terribly, she was his friend and he sold her up the proverbial river. Guilt settled in until he pestered Santa to let him visit her, that had earned him some comments, both teasing, after he explained why he wanted to go see her, and dead serious, prior to the explanations Santa looked like he was going to toss Bernard out on his Elvin ass. When he was finally let go, he found her dead asleep on the couch in front of the TV. He picked her up and put her in her bed. After that was done he left feeling much better. No one in the shop knew what he had done, and eventually even Santa had forgotten all about it. She was fourteen then, that was four years ago, and now… Bernard was acutely ware of the anatomical differences between himself and her. More precisely the effects her anatomy was wreaking on his. Not to say he was staring, one really didn't have to in the shirt she was wearing, but her assets, like her sisters, were noticeable after the years. Needless to say his mental image of her grew up drastically. And oh how long has it been since he was physically, let alone basically, attracted to a female? Of course this didn't help his explanation of why he did what he did all those years ago. Finally he gave up, with a 'let me organize my thoughts better and get back to you tomorrow' though not in so many words. They were finally to her door after a tense awkward walk and he, attempting to at least ease thing between them, held the door open for her. She walked past, and Bernard watched her.

_Don't look, do not look, don't make things worse for you, do not look, keep your eyes up to her shoulders, don't… ooh what a lovely ass… damn it, you looked_. He closed the doors after a murmured 'Good night, kid'

_Though,_ he mentally griped/appreciated, _the kid parts more from habit rather than truth_.

Inside Thalia shuddered; it was a little colder than she remembered. Her stuff was already out and unpacked, the posters and artworks she had acquired over the years were tastefully placed up in a nice reoccurring theme; her clothes were already hanging in her closet and folded neatly in her drawers.

"Gotta love magic." she muttered, shedding her clothes and dawning a baggy black tee shirt that had an advertisement for The Taming of The Shrew, the play. To tired to contemplate anything she crawled underneath her gray and black city print blankets and promptly fell asleep.

Morning dawned bright and cold for Thalia, but the cold didn't bother her at all; getting herself out of bed she pulled on a pair of Pajama pants and stretched, working her muscles slowly so she could move properly. When her joints and such were in working order she ventured out of her room and into the hallway. Drawing on six year old memories Thalia navigated the maze of hallways and such, passing a door that was pushed open by some random person, Thalia was glad she remembered to take off her piercing, not wanting to experience mind numbing chill on steel gauged flesh.

With a yawn she reached the doors of the family room, and slumped down into a chair.

"Morning all"

"Hey."

"Morning Pumpkin."

"Morning"

"So what's up with the Goth look?" Thalia looked confused for a moment before responding

"I'm not Goth, I just got used to wearing black for my job, I worked as a set technician on Broadway so I had to wear lots of black. It just eventually crept into my non-work wardrobe." Maud arched an eyebrow.

"The piercings?"

"A bet." Thalia responded. Bernard, who was debriefing Santa with his daily morning report, turned to look at hr.

"You're not to put them back in." he said simply. Thalia arched en eyebrow.

"Excuse me?"

"Dress Code Policy. 'One must represent Christmas in every facet possible, including dress wear' I fail to see how piercings, and dyed hair is Christmassy." Thalia's arched brow raised more.

"One, the dyed hair isn't going to go away anytime soon till I grow it out or re-dye. I can't just magically get rid of it." He bristled.

"Well, you're going to have to! And you are _not_ allowed to wear black anymore!"

"Well tough luck! My entire wardrobe is black or navy, so it's that or having me wander around in the buff!" she snapped. Malaika sauntered over to Maud and whispered.

"Well, at least we know how they will react to each other now!" Maud laughed behind her partially raised fork of eggs. Mrs. Clause just smiled and went over and asked Thalia what she wanted for breakfast interrupting her daughter's argument.

"Bacon, eggs and toast if you don't mind."

"Bernard? Do you want anything?"

"Oh, no thank you Ma'am."

"Hey Thal, you still good for the secretary job?" Santa asked from behind his newspaper.

"Secretary job?" she mumbled to herself for a minute before she remembered.

"Oh! Yeah, why?"

"Bernard, didn't you say a while ago that you were getting over worked even with Curtis doing his job?" the looks on Bernard's and Thalia's faces dropped. Neither of them said a word but the mental 'WHAT?' was very audible. Santa chuckled.

"Hey now, just think… it's the perfect opportunity!" Thalia arched an eyebrow, again.

"How so?" _and for whom?_ She mentally added. Santa chuckled and returned to his newspaper. Mrs. Clause came from the kitchen with a plate for Thalia.

"Your food sweetheart." Thalia took it and sat herself at the table. Bernard sat across from her after a gesture to do so.

"So," she swallowed her bacon. "What does this job require?"

"Oh, just your unwavering devotion and servitude." She gave him a flat look.

"If that was supposed to be funny, you need help."

"Just do whatever I tell you." He rolled his eyes. She gave him a look of 'yeah, the fuck, right'

"So, where did you end up?" Santa asked to ease the mounting tension.

"New York City." The inaudible 'Ah, that's why' hung in the air irritating Thalia. She twitched. "Why do you ask?" She continued catching them in a tight spot.

"Well… uhm." The collective, sans Maud, spluttered.

"You're bitchy." Maud said with no fear or her sisters out burst.

Thalia smirked, "Had to be, nice girls got taken advantage of there. But anyway what about you two?" Thalia swapped the topic with ease.

"Buddhist monastery, I'm pretty sure you can figure out the rest." Maud said with a wry humor in her voice.

"Oh! Well for me I wound up in a lot of different places, got to see the world and all ya know. But eventually I ended up in a international help organization going around and helping the world!"

"Ah cool." Thalia nodded her head and then paused and frowned.

"Hey, Maud, what are you going to be doing while here?"

"I don't know really… I was just going to go around and see what job I liked the most and maybe stick with it." Bernard opened his mouth to protest but Thal grabbed a roll off the table and stuffed it in his mouth with a hiss of 'Don't you think you've already been enough of an ass for one lifetime?' He gave her a nasty look before chewing through the roll and swallowing the chunk in his mouth. Malaika simply rolled her eyes and giggled.

Since nothing could be done about the finding 'The Cheer of Christmas' or stopping 'The Evil One' mother nature simply said: "Why don't we just go about our normal business? It's not like anything can be done at the moment." And so it was left, life continued on, as it's wont to do and very little had changed, meaning a lot actually had. Malaika and Maud eventually both settled in taking care of the reindeer, and Thalia was basically reduced to being Bernard's shadow, much to her displeasure.

"I'M TELLING YOU, IT'S PERFECTLY FINE TO LET THEM HAVE A FREAKIN BREAK EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE!" Thalia screamed at him.

"AND I'M TELLING YOU THAT I HAVE BEEN INCHARGE OF THIS WORKSHOP FOR WELL OVER FIVE HUNDRED YEARS! THINGS ARE PERFECTLY FINE THE WAY THEY ARE!" This had been going on for well over half an hour. It had roused every being in the entire pole to come watch as Bernard's face turned new and splendid colors of burgundy and eventually plum. Malaika turned to her family and whispered.

"How long has this been going on?"

"About half an hour."

"Ah, think they'll stop anytime soon?"

"Nope." Malaika smirked at the humor, and turned back to watch the quarreling duo. But eventually people lost interest and headed back in. Darkness settled in as the day left and what little warmth the sun provided fled with the light. Yet it went unnoticed at the two continued screaming and yelling at each other. The residence, who were close enough to be kept up by the pair, wonder why was it that neither of them were mute yet, for they had been shouting for well over seven hours. Finally around three in the morning Santa himself came to break them up. Both were blue tinged with ice clinging in their hair, and shivering but refusing to give up the fight.

"Oh, Come on now! This is ridiculous! I'd expect more out of both of you. Bernard, your over a thousand years old for Christ's sakes! And Thalia! I would expect you of all people to understand how dangerous the cold gets at night around here! Your both going to head inside and GO TO BED! And I don't want to catch you anywhere, _near_ the Workshop tomorrow or even telling the elves what to do through someone else _do I make myself clear?_" Bernard and Thalia looked at the ground and mumbled an affirmative. "Good, now get!" The two skirted around the enraged Santa, and ran back inside. The big guy stood outside for a moment before rubbing his temples, he walked to the door and down the hallway mentally groaning about his headache. What had gotten into them? He groaned and entered his chambers; He knew the Bernard would argue with anything the responded to him, but gees. That was utterly ridiculous! Suddenly the days when his baby girl would follow the poor elf around with doe eyes seemed a long gone paradise. At least compared to the sarcastic tough and independent Thalia of today. Santa shook his head; he wouldn't change Thal for anything, even if her new personality was troublesome. It didn't escape the big guys attention the looks Bernard gave his eldest when she wasn't paying attention. But he supposed that really couldn't be helped, they both were so much alike, and yet so different. Santa sighed again before entering a doorway into his personal chambers, Mrs. Claus already sound asleep, he went over to an elaborate medicine cabinet in their bath room and rummaged through it, taking out a bottle of aspirin and dry swallowing them. Turning back into his bedroom, the man formerly known as Scott quietly as before walked to his side of the bed before stripping to his pj's and climbing into bed. As soon as he head touched the pillows all thoughts fled his mind and sleep claimed him.

It was four in the morning and Thalia couldn't sleep. She felt horrible yelling at Bernard, and childish for standing out in the cold for so long, her throat hurt, her nose was stuffy and her head felt like it was being stuffed with cotton. So she was getting sicker by the moment and feeling guilty. Great. Pulling herself up and out of bed Thalia shuffled around until she came across her laptop, pulling it open, and burrowed herself back into bed. When the log-on screen appeared she typed in her password and began wiggling her finger across the mouse pad as if to entice the loading of her desktop to hurry up. Which really only slowed the process down, but not enough to discourage her from attempting it next time. When the loading was completed Thalia drew her finger across the pad to where her start bar should be and tapped it to open the menu. A few more movements of her digit and she accessed her Email. Scrolling down she found an email from Jared, begging her to comeback at quadruple pay, it was tempting but she wasn't allowed to leave the 'pole for any reason. Another one from her ex-best-friend who hadn't gotten it through her head that stealing a girl's boyfriend was a guaranteed way to lose a best-friend. Some more were junk mail. Another was from her friend Mercy who lived in Washington, complaining about being caught in-between three domineering guys 1. The last was from her bank. That was promptly deleted. No point in worrying about bad credit now. Thalia snuffled through a congested head and looked around for some tissues, finding none she surreptitiously magiced a roll from the conjoined bathroom along with the trash bin. Stretching to relieve the stiffness settling in her joints and limbs, the Santa child though about what to do to occupy her time until she was ready to sleep. Then remembered something about an invention of Bernard's. She thought about it for a moment trying to recall exactly what it was he wanted before suddenly remembering. Quickly she manipulated the keyboards and mouse to open up a design program. After toggling a few angles and readjusting sizing issues, Thalia quickly scanned for any flaws or discrepancies. Finding none she placed the laptop on her bed coverings and hauled herself out of the mass of down plumped blankets. Picking the laptop back up, Thalia walked out of her room at the speed of a sick person, and walked down the hallways. She made it to his room. The dark haired woman gently twisted the knob to allow the door to be opened. And pushed. In the dim lighting Thalia could see Bernard there bundled underneath his blankets. Even from across the room she could hear his labored breath through her stuffed head. Still determined to show him her blueprints, Thalia continued in with no sense of propriety. She clunked the machine in her hands down on the table next to him and turned to wake him up. A slanted sheet of blue twilight struck his features illuminating his face. Thalia couldn't breath, not that she was able to do so much before. While she could always admit that Bernard was cute, handsome even when she was feeling generous, he was truly beautiful, inhumanly so, when he wasn't ruining his looks by talking; she sucked in a breath and realized just what her situation was. This was bad, if he woke up and found her here… the consequences buzzed around her head. Bernard was a … man?… of formality and properness. He never invited a female into his room, nor did he enter one's chambers. His favorite way of greeting 'Ladies', as he is oft to call them, was my kissing their hand, he did so to her mother at almost every meeting. His courteousness was endearing, but a firm reminder of his values.

_And if he caught you in here girl… not only would you die of embarrassment, He would tell dad and then you'll be in a world of hurt. _ Thalia hissed a long sibilant curse word. A look of discomfort crossed his face as if some otherworldly nightmare was devouring him. Gently she raised a slightly feverish hand to his clammy fever-broken brow and brushed his sweat-dampened hair off of his face. He calmed at her warm touch and eased back into a light slumber. She pulled back her hand slowly, both wanting to savor the contact she knew would never happen again, and not wanting to startle him into waking. Hardly an inch from his face and Bernard's hand shot out to grab hers. Her intake of breath was audible as his dark holly green eyes peered out at her beneath his lowered dark lashes. His lips moved to for a word she didn't catch and he fell back asleep. She slid her hand out of his slackened grasp and grabbed her laptop and sped out the door. Once firmly on the other side, Thalia paused to allow her thudding heart to calm, her entire face was bright red.

_Why did I do that?_ She thought, as she tried to tell herself she no longer had feelings for him. But the look of his eyes partially opened and gazing at her as if she was the most miraculous thing refused to leave her mind as she went back to her room, when she got there, Thalia placed the laptop on the table next to her bed. And dove underneath the covers. When she fell asleep her dreams were consumed with the dark haired elf, whom, though neither of them knew it, had just recaptured her heart so easily.

Malaika, who had witnessed as Thalia crept from the head elf's room, her face bright red, and practically ran down into her room, wasn't ignorant, she knew the implications of Thalia coming and going from Bernard's room in the middle of the night. She also knew that look on her face. Thalia's crush had just entered the adult phase… she grinned. Things were going to be a lot more interesting around here from now on.

OMG I am sooooo sorry about how long it took. I seriously am, and it wasn't until a reader got on my ass about it that I realized. Please I am so sorry! Uhm. Please RnR and I hope you liked the chapter. Oh! And BTW I fibbed a little bit n the history for plot purposes, in reality Christmas as we know it hadn't started until the late 1600's in Germany (I think, it's been years since I paid attention to that stuff) So, don't take my word as fact, it's 90 BS.

Love,

Pseudonym.

1 Mercy is a character out of a book series by the lovely and talented authoress Patricia Briggs. Review if you think I should include them or not.


	5. A new guest

The rhythmic thrumming of metal strings rang through the empty halls of the workshop.

"Are these times contagious?

I've never been this bored before.

Is this the prize I've waited for?" Maud's soft velvet voice drifted throughout the corridors and around the abandoned workbenches. Malaika padded over to her second oldest sister and listened to her until the song ended. Walking over the blonde picked up, the middle one's guitar case and saw a picture fall out of it. Bending over her long blonde hair fell about her face and got in her mouth and eyes. Standing up straight again she pulled her hair out of her face and examined the picture. It was a picture of Maud and some Asian guy, looked to be taken about a year ago or close to it. She looked so happy in the picture, as did the guy. He was bald, and had a set of prayer beads strung around his neck. A monk, Malaika's brain filled in, some guy from the monastery obviously, not much older than her from the looks of things.

"So, who's the guy?" Malaika asked. Maud stopped and looked at the picture in the youngest child's hands. The older of the two snatched the picture from the younger one's hand and blushed crimson.

"He's a friend." She said too quickly.

"Uh-huh, Maud… tell the truth. Is this guy your boyfriend?" Maud turned a darker shade of crimson and began to stutter. Malaika squealed at her usually unshakeable older sister being reduced into a twitter painted fool.

"OH MY GOD THAT IS SOOOO CUTE!" she crowed. Malaika snatched the picture from her sister's grasp and ran out the room crying. "Thal has to see this!"

"Damnit get back here you!" the two raced down the hallways to their sick sisters chambers. They burst in, and in an impressive leap, Malaika cleared the flooring between the doorway and the oldest's bed bouncing the sick girl up in the air before landing.

"THALIA YOU'VE GOT TO SEE THIS TOTALLY CUTE PICTURE OF MAUD'S BOYFRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Mal. I'm right here, even though I'm sick… you don't need to shout." She said in a flat tone. Malaika had the graces to look sheepish for a moment before continuing on at fifty miles a second.

"Mal. Mal. Mal sweetie, I can't understand you.' Thalia said through her stuffed nose, and raspy voice. Malaika stopped chattering at mock five and blushed. "Maud, do you want to defend yourself?" The oldest asked after the youngest had apologized.

Maud blushed a deep crimson color before looking down into the bed spread and mumbled her response. Malaika and Thalia both grinned (or at least to the best of Thalia's ability despite her stuffy head and glazed look.)

"Oh what was that my dear older sister?' Malaika teased the middle child.

"I said. He'snotmyboyfriend." She drew soft at the end and once again Thalia was left guessing as to what her next younger sister had said.

"Wha… ahh… ahh… achoo!" she sniffed her snot back up her nose, earning disgusted looks from the other two before mumbling 'Sorry'. Malaika reached over and grabbed the tissue box and pressed to her sister, in a loud non-spoken hint. Shooting her youngest sister a nasty look she grabbed a tissue from the box and empty her nose into loudly. After several more tissues and her ears popping a few times from the pressure Thalia could breathe again and hear much better then before. Maud got up and grabbed a trash basket from across the room, which looked like Thalia was using as shot practice, from the littered balled up snot-rags surrounding them. Gingerly she picked them up by the little white corners of the cloths and threw them in before she put them by Thalia's bed. Then she walked into the adjoining bathroom and washed her hands thoroughly. A knock at the door protruded the soft chattering of Thalia and Malaika jumping up off the bed the Blonde ran over to the door and opened it to reveal their Mom.

"Hello." The blonde girl moved out of the way for her likewise blonde mother to enter. The woman entered with a tray laden with bowls of soup and sandwiches.

"Hey is Bernard as miserable as me?" Thalia asked trying to hide her worry with a glazed look of mild curiosity that she hoped read 'Cause if I'm the only one sick here…' Malaika suppressed a grin by biting the inside of her mouth. It worked on Maud and their mom though.

"Oh I don't know sweetie, he hasn't woken up yet, which has me and your father worried because even off season he's usually up early." Thalia nodded. Mrs. Claus put the tray down on her daughter's bed and left. Maud grabbed her bowl and plate and followed suit, leaving Malaika and Thalia alone. Thalia took a spoonful of her soup, slurping it thoughtfully.

"So what was with the concern for 'that obnoxious, odious, snot of an elf'?"

"What?" _Just play stupid Thal. There's no way she could know. _ The oldest thought.

"You know, Bernard. And don't bother pretending to be stupid, I saw you last night." Thalia opened her mouth to refute the accusation. But before the sounds could make their way past her slightly swollen throat, an alert sounded. The two look at each other in surprise. With Bernard too sick to move and Curtis gone, that, by default, left Thalia in charge of the North Pole. And being that she was sick too….

"Go!" she shouted her voice fading horribly. Malaika nodded and turned out the door in a dead run. Thalia sank back into her pillows, breathing heavily.

Maud stared, her mind refused to function properly and accept the truth. Behind her Malaika thumped in and stopped dead in the doorway.

"Oh my god…"

Bernard threw off the heavy blankets and forced himself out of bed. The alarm had woken him up, but nobody had bothered to come and get him. Stumbling around for clothes, the Elf recalled the dream he had last night. It was by no means the most lecherous of dreams he had had in the recent weeks of Thalia's return, but by far the most vivid. Bernard shook the thoughts from his head, slowly as to not make himself sick with dizziness, and returned to searching for a tunic, before realizing he already had one in his hand, stretching his sore body, Bernard managed to get the thick velvet tunic over his head. He fumbled with the thongs to the collar of his shirt before giving up. Normally he would have taken the time to insure that they all were perfectly tied and that his appearance was immaculate. Today he just didn't care. The elf's hair bent and twisted in all sorts of interesting ways and his hat refused to stay on top of his head. So it lay on the floor to his room forgotten and dejected.

Malaika turned around and shot out the door to intercept anyone that might come in. She pinched her lower lip in-between her teeth, mentally calling up every foul word she could bring herself to recall.

_Oh… shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit. This is soooooooo bad. This is beyond bad this is cataclysmic. _She worried for a moment more before her mind snapped to a conclusion.

_Thalia! She'll know what to do!_ And with that the blonde girl looked around and took off to her oldest sisters as fast as she could.

Knock Knock. Some one was at her door.

"Come in." Thalia rasped as loud as she could. The knocking persisted.

"COME IN." She shouted at the top of her lungs, still not coming out much louder. The knocking continued. Grumbling about not humoring the sick, Thalia threw off her bed spread and got to her feet. Slowly and wobbly she made her way to the door. Bracing herself on the doorframe and managed to get the door open.

"I said come in already." She rasped at the person on the other side of the door before turning around not even paying attention to said person, and crawled back underneath her covers. Bernard stood there his hand held in position to knock again, his eyes wide, with a blush staining his cheeks. During her escape back to her bed, Thalia's shirt had ridden up, exposing her underwear.

"What do you want?" she asked once safely tucked back in her bed and snuggled properly into her pillows. She focused on the doorway, but the person on the other side eluded her.

"I don't suppose you know what's going one around here?"

"Now why would I know anything?" she said.

"Excuse me Bernard…" a new voice poked through the tension and the Owner stuck her head into the room. "Hey Thal? Could ya come here for a minute? There's an issue that needs your advice…" Malaika asked slightly panting from her run.

"Oh well I'd better come along then… after all I am the Head Elf." The male, now identified as Bernard, spoke. Thalia's brain already started working a mile a minute, trying to decipher as to why they would want her instead.

"Er, uhm… Bernard… you should get back to bed... you look like hell." And with that Malaika barged past the elf grabbed Thalia by the arm and drug her off to fast for either of them to really keep up with. Bernard stood in the hallway for a moment before deciding that perhaps bed for the next couple of weeks was a capital idea, and left to do just that.

Malaika dragged her sister through the corridors and down into the empty kitchens.

"Just what was so important you had to rip my arm off for?" Thalia snapped rotating her arm trying to alleviate the pain in her joint after being pulled out of place.

"Hello, you are Thalia no? I was told so much about you." Thalia stopped moving and slowly turned to face the speaker.

"Oh hell…"


	6. In dreams do we die most valiantly

A month had passed by since the girls' unexpected, and most importantly secret, visitor had arrived. And things had settled into a semi-normal routine, despite the headaches trying to keep Maud's boyfriend secret caused. Though a rapidly depleting supply of ibuprophine was more than worth watching Maud wander around on cloud nine, goofy effects included.

"Thalia! Quit daydreaming and get back to inventory!" Unfortunately Bernard seemed hell-bent to make up for lost time and started running Thalia ragged. When the head elf had turned to inspect the toy train wheel bins, Thalia made her escape. Quietly as possible, the girl crept, begging, hoping, praying that Bernard couldn't hear her retreat with his inhuman hearing. Tiptoeing around the corner, and… Success! Back in the room behind her Bernard watched her sneak out and chuckled to himself, he'd let her enjoy a momentary reprieve, before getting her back to color inventory.

Thalia made her way to the Kitchens. Where, in a random stroke of luck her sister Malaika was the only one in.

"Hey, Mal. What's up?" Malaika turned around and greeted her sister.

"Hey Thal. Nothing much, skipping out on work again?" Thalia looked at the fire like it was the most interesting thing in the room.

"You know he's just going to hunt you down in a few moments." Oh she knew, part of her relished in the game she had made of it. Her running, him chasing. The thrill of the game, it tugged at her making her want more.

"Isn't it weird how this 'darkness' hasn't attacked yet, and it's been free for a while now, you'd think it would have done something by now." The fire was growing in her view, the colors deepening.

"I bet he knows you leave and just lets you. It's like some twisted game between you two honestly." Her sister's voice sounded far away.

"God, it's getting hot in here, don't you agree Thal? Thal? Thal!" The fire was so pretty, it was calling to her, she had to touch the flames. She was so cold; she had to touch the flames; she needed its warmth.

"THALIA!" Her sister's shrieked, but Thalia was beyond caring. She stretched out a hand to touch the pretty fire, but something was keeping her from touching it. It wasn't very strong, but it was annoying.

Bernard heard the shriek and came running at his full speed. He reached the kitchens and what he saw made him panic. Thalia was walking to the hearth where all the bread's and cookies were baked, here arm stretched out, her eyes blank. Poor Malaika was pushing against her sister with all her might, but losing steadily. In the hearth a figure was half formed, a head torso and arms, one of which was stretched to her.

"DON'T LET THEM TOUCH!" he bellowed and ran to grab Thalia and force her back. Together they managed to push her back against the adjacent wall. The spell broke and Thalia woke up to see Bernard and Malaika pushing her back.

Looking up she saw a devilish face in the flames peering at her, with a malicious grin it vanished into cold dead embers. Her head rang and her vision swirled. Blood trickled out of her nose. And with a soft sigh she collapsed onto Bernard's chest.

He held her close to him, slowly sinking to the floor, his arms wrapped tight around her form.

"What happened?! What was all the screaming?!" Santa demanded.

"He was here." Was all that Malaika could say as she stared at her sister.

"Someone mind telling me what the fuck is going on here?!" Bernard was in too much agreement with the enraged Santa to chide him for his un-Santa-like language. But apparently Mother Nature wasn't.

"Santa, think Disney language please." He gave her a flat look before sitting down and taking a sip of his adult cocoa. Bernard also didn't give him trouble over that either, hell he certainly felt he needed an adult cocoa at the moment. Father Time stood up and cleared his throat.

"Bernard. Don't you think someone should be watching over Thalia at the moment?" Bernard paled a bit, nodded and left the room at a break-neck pace without excusing himself. Santa opened his mouth to ask why he had done that, but Father Time simply held up a hand for him to hold off on the question for a moment.

"Anyone who is not a member of The Council of Legendary Figures, please leave." The room vacated leaving the council members in the room. All of the legendary figures, some well known, others not so much, sat in the room taking up tables and chairs, some even sat on the floor. Every single legendary figure had turned out in support of Santa and Mrs. Claus.

"Now, Santa you might be wondering why I chased Bernard out of here. Well, what I'm about to say is for the council's ears only, this never leaves this room. Period. Especially your daughters, they must never know this. It would be too hard on them to know. And most importantly Bernard must never hear a word of this." Santa nodded, and the rest of the council nodded in suit.

"Good," He pulled a book out of seemingly nowhere and opened it to a page that had Thalia and Bernard's picture on it. Except they were wearing old clothes, from the early second century, maybe older. Thalia's hair was braided and hung over her shoulder, her pure white dress was beautiful and fit her like a princess, as did the coronet on her head. Bernard wore hose and a dark tunic with a similar coronet on his head, except it had a different setting in the middle of his. His was a circle in a stone in it, while Thalia's was a diamond shape.

"You might assume this is the Thalia and Bernard we both know today, but in fact it's not. This is Lord Bernard of the House of Thane and this is Lady Thalia of the House of Yule. Our story and trouble started when Lady Thalia was promised to Lord Byrne of the House of Cadwin, as reward for his services in saving their eldest son in battle." He turned the page to show a young handsome man dressed in armor wielding a sword.

"Lord Byrne saw lady Thalia and instantly fell in love with her, but his feelings were not reciprocated, for she already loved another. Lady Thalia and Lord Bernard had met at a ball, the King had hosted, in hopes that he could marry off his children to respectable houses. The two had met and fallen in love. But her family had disapproved of her relationship with the young Thane, and had forbidden her to see him any more." He turned the page to the picture of Thalia being locked in her room.

"So on the night of her wedding she fled with her lover and the two left the country and had gotten married in a small church." He flipped the page to the scene of the two in a small church before an alter exchanging rings.

"Enraged Lord Byrne went after them, vowing to reclaim his love and slay the Thane Noble. For months he pursued them until he had finally caught up with them. But by this time his hatred and rage had transformed him into a demonic human." The new picture showed Bernard shielding a cowering, and heavily pregnant Thalia. His sword drawn, his face set in determination to save his wife and unborn child. Thalia behind him with a look of terror and sadness on her face. Her arms around her large stomach. And Lord Byrne, a tall dark figure stalking towards them, anger visibly radiating off of him.

"In his rage, he didn't even see Bernard anymore, he only focused on Thalia. He lifted Bernard up and threw him to the side, then raised his sword and rent her clean in half, killing her and her unborn babe in one fell swoop." Mrs. Claus bit back a sobbing gasp.

"Byrne, realizing his misdeed, wrapped her body in a large cloth and brought it back to her family. Claiming that Bernard had killed her when he learned that Byrne was coming to rescue her. The family buried her in the family graveyard and invited Byrne to stay at their castle." Mother Nature sat there, tears forming in her eyes as Cupid muttered "not one of my better works"

"So, that's it? She dies and her murderer is welcomed into he family?" The Easter Bunny quipped ready to get offended.

"That's not the end of the story just yet." Cupid stated grimly.

"Quite, quite," Father Time said. "So Lord Byrne was invited to live at the Yule family Estates, so he could forever be close to the one he loved. But, one night, the moon was full and bright and Bernard crept onto the Family Estate to visit the grave of his truelove. Once out there he went to her grave and kneeled, tenderly he raised a hand and traced the letters carved into the tombstone. A sob escaped him as he remembered the loss of his wife and child. Anger burned within him as he remembered whom it was that killed her, and how no one but him knew the truth, and how he was allowed to linger by his wife's gravesite, he himself had to flee the country as a murderer. But Lord Bernard was not quiet enough with his grief and it woke the sleeping Byrne, whose window was just behind him. Too Busy with his tears Bernard didn't hear Byrne creep up behind him until he had drawn his sword. In a flash Bernard had whirled around and had his sword out, but he had no chance to defeat Byrne, who was a seasoned warrior. But during the fight, their voices had raised and woken up the entire family, who listened as Bernard accused Byrne of murdering his wife and child, and then blaming it on him. Lord Byrne enraged and not paying attention, agreed to the claims, rubbing it in Lord Bernard's face. The family grew furious that this monster had deceived them so. And watched to see the victor. With a dirty dishonorable move Byrne threw Bernard off balance and slew him too. When Bernard's body hit the ground four armed men where on Byrne and killed him too." Father time concluded. Mrs. Claus daubed her eyes and sniffled.

"But what does this have to do with Thalia and Bernard? Aside from a startling and eerie resemblance in name and appearance." Santa asked, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Byrne's evil deeds never died with his physical body. His soul still lives on through his hatred of Bernard and his want for Thalia." Cupid ground out.

"So… Bernard and Thalia are reincarnates of these people or something?" The sand man asked confused. Father time sighed.

"That's something only death can answer. I only record names and dates. There have been many Thalias and many Bernards throughout history, maybe it's purely coincidence that they look like the people in the story. Maybe it's not. All I can say is that Byrne is after Thalia, whether it's because she resembles his long lost love so much, or that she is, I do not know. I do know it is her destiny to fight this person, for she is The Good Cheer of Christmas, and Bernard is supposed to fall in love with her. But after that… I don't know." They all fell silent in contemplation.

Bernard sat there holding her hand, her breathing was so shallow, and she kept bleeding from her nose periodically.

"Come on Thalia, you can't do this to me, not after you made me feel something for you." He gasped a short laugh trying to hold back to tears.

"You know a few weeks ago I had a dream about you. It was where I woke up, and you were staring at me, just looking at me. You were an elf, with the rosy cheeks and pointed ears and everything. And you where looking at me like I was the most amazing thing you had ever seen. And you blue eyes never looked so blue, or your skin so soft. I remember thinking, Just kiss me, please, let me know you're not a dream. Touch me say something, just please don't be a dream. But you were. And you weren't there when I opened my eyes again." He inhaled before he brought her hand to his lips. "But I would trade anything, if you would just open your eyes. Please." He drew off unable to continue.

In her dreams Thalia wondered the hallways of a castle, she seemed to know where she was going, so she wasn't too concerned. She turned a corner and went through a door to a gravesite. There on the grave it read: THALIA DAUGHTER OF NICKLAUS. In her ear a hot rank breath hissed.

"I'm coming for you Thalia, you will be mine. And I'll kill that bastard Bernard too."

Okay, New chapter short but a good one… well at least in my opinion.

Hey contest here, if any of my readers are artists or know artists, then I challenge you to draw out your favorite scene from the story so far. First prize… ohh I don't know gets a request of theirs. But please read and review. Honestly, I only had one review last time, that was a major blow, especially since I had even went and posted in a reasonable time frame, and had been getting a lot more before.

And of course, Mad Props to wulviegurl for being the ONLY FREAKIN ONE TO REVIEW! I honestly thought about putting off writing this chapter because I only got one review, but I decided that it wasn't fair to wulviegurl so here it is. And I promise the next chapter isn't going to be so dramatic. It's more going to be aftermath, recovery, and things heat up between Bernard and Thalia ;-)


	7. Tests of faith and strength of will

"Isn't the Cheer of Christmas supposed to have Christmas magic?" Mrs. Claus asked confused. Her daughter never showed any aptitude for it. Bernard swore he saw it when she was a baby, but had never seen any show of it later.

"Oh she does, it's just that her sister didn't have any ability for it. So she made a habit of not using it." The Chronos Master sighed.

"Wait I thought only elves and Santa had Christmas magic." Santa asked even more confused then his wife.

"They do, well occasionally a human will be born with it, but it usually fades, or alters the human." Mother Nature injected this time.

"So, you're saying young Thalia isn't human anymore." The Tooth fairy asked. Mother Nature and Father Time nodded. "Ah, that would explain why she's lost three complete sets of teeth. Elves loose about seven sets of teeth during their entire life." He informed. Everyone gave him a look and turned their heads back down to the floor.

"So, what now?" The Easter Bunny asked.

Jack Frost wasn't one for giving a damn about Santa or his brood. But he had to admit he felt sorry for the girl. Luck just didn't seem to be on her side. He sat outside sipping on a mug of cocoa he managed to lift from under the collective noses of the persnickety kitchen elves. Huffing an icy breath he concluded his round about thoughts and drained the rest of his drink and left the cup in the snow for someone else to pick up.

Thalia shot up her eyes wide open, for a moment she couldn't see her room, all she could see was the tombstone and hear the echoes of that … horrible voice. She shuddered and curled up into a tiny little ball. A sharp sob escaped her, and she felt warm hands on her back and shoulders.

"Thalia! Thalia, Thalia what's wrong?" Someone kept repeating.

Bernard saw her shot up in abject terror. He reached out to her but she moved away sobbing and curling herself into a ball. He sat on her bed next to her and started rubbing her back trying to calm her.

"Thalia!" he called trying to get her attention. "Thalia. Thalia! What's wrong?" he kept asking trying to break her out of whatever she put herself in. Slowly she looked up and stared at him through red puffy eyes.

"Bernard… is that you?" She asked quietly. Her voice creaked.

"Yeah, it's me sweetheart." He said softly, mentally cursing himself for the term. She let out a cry and latched herself onto his waist sobbing into his doublet.

"Er." Bernard simply stroked her hair. Waiting for her to calm down enough to talk. All the while never noticing a pair of devilish red eye glaring at the from the candle flames in the chandelier.

Hours later Bernard lay next to her in the bed gently stroking her arms as she sighed in her sleep before sinking deeper into the dreamless slumber the Sandman came to give her. He thought about the dream she had.

_Her name on a tombstone eh. I hope she isn't suddenly starting to develop clairvoyant prowess._ He thought subconsciously gathering her into him arms. She gave a sleepy a moan before wiggling herself closer to a more comfortable position. Her breath on his neck rattled him from his thoughts as he realized just how close she was to him. He swallowed as a deep breath for her turned into an opportunity for him to feel her chest against his. His hands palmed her back, feeling her soft skin against his slightly roughened fingertips as her shirt slowly rid up. He forced himself away from her putting a needed physical distance between them. She whimpered and pouted, making things very hard for Bernard. He briefly wondered what she was dreaming about, as he recalled the Slumber-lords words, _**"There really is no such thing as a dreamless sleep. All it is is simply being in such a deep state of REM that you cannot remember what it was you dreamed about. It's not really safe to tamper with someone's REM and doing too much of it can cause sever psychological repercussions, but I figure it's probably safer to her mental health is she didn't remember her dreams for a while."**_ Gently he reached out and brushed an errant lock of hair out of her eyes before indulging himself in tracing his finger down the side of her face. _"__**Stay with her Bernard, she needs you. She cannot be alone right now, and anyone else I would trust her to is indisposed of at the moment. Keep in physical contact with her throughout the night. She needs touch to keep her centered here; if her subconscious is allowed to drift off then she could slip into a coma."**__ You don't make things easy on a guy do you? Is this punishment for having illicit dreams about her? Surely you must know I'm attracted to her, and so you ask me to lay in bed with her and keep touching her… Irony, I hate… no… __**despise **__you._

Maud sat in the stables with Fa-Sao leaning on him for strength.

"Where did it all go wrong?" she asked tears building up in her eyes. The former Monk just rubbed her arms and reassured her that nothing went wrong.

"Then what did we do… did _she_ do to deserve this?" She started to cry, tears poured down her tanned cheeks and landed on her shirt. A bronzed hand reached out and wiped away the tears and turned her to face him.

"Maud, there is darkness in the world, there always has been. Your sister happened to be one of the ones called forth to battle it. Be proud for her and support her in her efforts." He said gently before leaning down to capture her lips with his own in a soft sweet first kiss. Maud inhaled and looked at him with wide eyes.

Malaika wanted to say she wasn't jealous, after all it was good that her sisters both had somebody to comfort them, and they needed it the most, but when she walked by and accidentally caught the tender moment between Maud and Fa-Saou. All she could think of was Yanamara-kun. And how she could never have him, while Maud's boyfriend trekked thousands of miles to be with her. Slowly she walked to her room, horrified at her thoughts. Her sisters had every right to be happy. Even if she wasn't. When she got to her room there was a message beeping on her cell phone. Pressing the button to hear the message Malaika held it up to her ear wearily. Suddenly she perked up and focused her entire attention of listening.

"_**Hello Mal,**_

_**It's me Kev… Yanamara, I keep forgetting you use my real name. Listen I know this is out of the blue, and you probably don't want to hear me call, but please, if you haven't already hung up, hear me out. I'm dying, I know it sounds melodramatic but it's true. You see I was called in to help a endangered species of whale breed in the artic circle when my ship crashed on an Ice sheet. I managed to get off the ship but had to abandon it along with most of my gear when it's hull ruptured and the ship sank, it started breaking the ice, the good news is the whales are now in the clear and should be doing fine for the breeding season, but the bad thing is I'm trapped a few miles south of the North Pole in a cave, freezing to death. I… I just wanted to let you know, I'm thinking about you,"**_ he laughed on the phone but it sounded desperate like he wanted to find something to laugh about in his current situation. Malaika wiped away the tears forming in her eyes. _**"I know it sounds lame but, I am, I… I haven't stopped thinking about you, even after you cruelly ripped my heart out the last night I ever saw you. I I I just wanted to tell you… Aishiteru Malaika-koibito."**_ The Phone went silent for a moment and Malaika feared that he had died. Before he continued._** "Just to let you know my Coordinates so you can send a rescue team for my body, I'm at…"**_ He paused for a moment before relaying his coordinates. Malaika's eyes grew wide, that was barely a mile away from here! Not even listening to the rest of the message and hung up and called him back, praying she wasn't too late. A groggy voice responded. She breathed a sigh of relief and responded.

"Yanamara! It' me Mal! Are you okay?… no wait that's a stupid question, just keep talking I'll be there in under twenty." She ran out her room glad no one was around and grabbed the extra heavy winter coats used for outside Elvesburg expeditions and the keys to a snow mobile.

"Thank you for trying to give me hope Mal but I know it's hopeless, unless your at Santa's workshop there's no way you can save me, but I appreciate hearing your voice one last time." He said weekly.

"Yanamara do _not_ fall asleep I will never forgive you if you do, and for your information I _am_ at Santa's workshop! And like I said I will be there in under twenty so you keep talking NOW!" She screamed into the phone. Too tired to argue he simply asked.

"About what?"

"Anything, tell me about what happened after I left." And he did he went on, his voice gaining strength as he talked about the thinks he hated after she left, mostly her absence, as she grabbed a thermos of hot Cocoa and an extra blanket and ran out the door to the Snow Mobile shed.

Yanamara wasn't particularly optimistic when she told him she'd be there in twenty minutes, but he couldn't help but fight stronger to stay alive when she called and told him she was coming to rescue him. He kept yammering into the phone about whatever popped into his head, he finally had to stop himself from talking when he confessed he loved the color she painted to toenails. But by that time he had sworn he heard a Snow Mobile pull up outside the cave entrance.

"Yanamara!" He stopped dead, that was unmistakably her voice, and it wasn't coming from the phone. A moment later he called back. "Here!"

Malaika hurried in at his voice with the blanket coat and thermos.

"I can't believe its you." He whispered. She helped him up and wrapped the coat and blanket around him and told him to drink from the thermos. He complied, still not fully sure this was real; cautiously he took a sip from the thermos. Hot Chocolate, now he knew he was hallucinating.

Once they were situated on the Snow Mobile and heading towards home she began to wonder. _How am I going to pull this off?_

Next Chapter: It's back to a semblance of normalcy for Thalia; this also means back to work. And now Malaika's got a new beau. And Bernard finds out about all of them… hrm… can Thalia persuade him not to kick the guys out? Of course she can! But will she be able to handle owing Bernard a HUGE favor? Better yet, will Bernard be able to handle the pressure of having Thalia owe him big time?

P.S. Aishiteru Malaika-Koibito translates as "I love you Malaika my beloved."


	8. Author's Note

Dear Loyal Readers,

… so many ways to say it, but none of them adequately do. So right to the point then.

I am abandoning fanfiction(dot)net (Fanfiction if those stupid fuckers edit the name on me again). I've had it, I've had it with the way they fuck up my stories whenever I post, if they even let me post. I've had it with a lot of the people. I've had it with the steady degradation of the fics on this site. I've taken my fill, so here's my list of grievances.

The way they mess up my stories-

I have these nicely written and well spaced out chapters to post, they look nice, they're edited, they're easy to read and follow, and then I begin the pain in the ass process of posting. And every time I pray it comes out the same, but it never does, lines are missing, spaceing's deleted, characters (symbols, not the people in the fic) disappear, sometimes even my font is changed, making my stories a pain in the ass to read. I have tried everything I could think of, I tried editing it after I post, I tried saveing it different ways, nothing works.

The People-

It's not everybody on here, in fact I seriously like having other authors to chat with and I love getting reviews, I actually like the ones that tell me I need to fix things, because it helps me as a writer grow, I especially like the authors who take their time to write decent fics, with such, apparently, unheard of things called _plots_ and _details_ and _pacing_. Oh who also write characters IN-FUCKING-CHARACTER to a understandable point, I mean this is _fanfiction_ after all, all of our stories are out of character and alternate reality/universe, and don't ruin any chance at a plot within five lines, trust me there are authors on this site who managed that. Another peeve of mine is the pairings, you have the rite to like whomever pairing you do, and if you don't like the pairing, simply _Don't read_ it's not brain surgery people, but since most of the categories on here don't have filters, please put the pairing _in_ the description, or at least make it obvious, I'm not a yaoi fan, I already have to sift through thousands of fics for one that isn't slash. Oh, and to the majority (note I said majority, not all) of authors who write in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, one, for the love of God TAKE A FUCKING WRITEING COURSE! And two, if you're that sad that you _fantasize about two twelve year old boys, __**who happen to be brothers**__, making out _seek counseling immediately. That's a serious mental issue, it's call pedophilia, and you can be arrested for it.

The Rules They Never Enforce-

I have seen fics, which belong lodged in the deepest recesses of Adultfanfiction's servers, posted loud and proud on this site. I have nothing against those types of fics; in fact, a well-written sex scene is a dieing art. And obviously nothing happens to them, while great fics, must suffer huge gaps in them because the author fears being kicked off the site for x-amount of time. And they are usually the ones that are checked, and that's sad because a swell of bad fics are riding on the site managers short-sightedness, getting away with things they should while people who do it tastefully as part of their art, get reprimanded.

So without further ado, I here-by retire from this site. I am no-longer posting or updating here, I will still receive your reviews, and reply to them like usual, and I will still receive PMs, but this is the last thing I will upload onto the site.

Sorrowfully yours,

Pseudonym.


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